The serfs by surrender, the _sua datione servus_ of Henry’s law, the _servus dedititius_, and giafþræl of the Norse law. Among these Grimm numbers the serfs whose voluntary submission so much surprised the Roman philosopher. Even the law of the Germans, so generally favourable to liberty, contemplates and provides for the case of such a voluntary servitude[346]. This might arise in various ways. For example, a time of severe scarcity, such as are only too often recorded in our ancient annals, unquestionably drove even the free to the cruel alternative of either starvation or servitude: “Subdebant se pauperes servitio, ut quantulumcunque de alimento porrigerent,” says Gregory of Tours[347]; Gildas tells us a similar tale of the Britons[348]; and even as late as the Norman conquest we find Geatflǽd, a lady, directing by her will the manumission of all those who had bent their heads in the evil days for food[349]. Another was, no doubt, debt, incurred either through poverty or crime; and when the days of fierce and cruel warfare had passed away, this must have been the most fertile source of servitude. I have not found among the Anglosaxon remains any example of slavery voluntarily incurred by the insolvent debtor, but the whole course of analogy is in favour of its existence, and Marculf supplies us with the formulary by which, among the Franks, the debtor surrendered his freedom to the creditor. It may be presumed that this servitude had a term, and that a certain period of servile labour was considered equivalent to the debt. The case of crime was undoubtedly a very common one, especially as those whose necessities were the most likely to bring them in collision with the law were those also who were least able to fulfil its requirements, by payment of the fines attached to their offences. The criminal whose own means were insufficient, and whose relatives or lord would not assist him to make up the legal fine he had incurred, was either compelled to surrender himself to the plaintiff, or to some third party who paid the sum for him, by agreement with the aggrieved party. This was technically called þingian[350], and such a serf was called a witeþeów, convict, or criminal slave. These are the _servi redemptione_ of Henry the First. ----- Footnote 345: Such may also have been malefactors, who sought an asylum in church or other privileged lands, and who sometimes formed a very considerable number of dependants or retainers: thus, “Contraxit universam iuventutem Houlandiae [Holland in Lincolnshire] strenuissimus comes Algarus, ... unà cum cohorte Croylandiae monasterii, videlicet CC bellatoribus robustissimis, eo quod maxima pars illorum de fugitivis fuerat.” Hist. Ingulf, p. 865. Footnote 346: